Released November 4, 2013

New York – More than 800 guests joined Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York (CCC) at the Waldorf Astoria on Wednesday, October 30 for a celebration breakfast to recognize the work of individuals and organizations making a difference in the lives of children in New York City, across the country, and around the globe. The annual event brought together leaders from the child advocacy community with government officials, philanthropists, service providers, and more.

“Our honorees and speakers today have reached what I would call a gold standard when we think of creative individuals,” said Jennifer March, CCC’s Executive Director. “Abigail Disney, for not only funding grassroots movements but using film as a vehicle to challenge inequality that exists across the globe. Sandra Killett and her outstanding colleagues at the Child Welfare Organizing Project for helping parents to be change agents in their homes and communities, and for not resting until the city recognized the critical contribution of parents in the lives of children. Agnes Gund for fundamentally shaping how children see the world and the endless possibilities of their contribution to it.”

Ronan Farrow provided keynote remarks, urging CCC’s guests to defend New York from becoming the kind of place that denies services to new generations of children. “As you’ve heard, New York’s child poverty rate is the highest it’s been in a decade,” he said. “So everything that New York stands for is under threat.”

Jennifer March also recognized Farrow, one of the world’s foremost experts on youth activism, “for bringing youth voice to prominent places in the highest reaches of the U.S. government and on a global scale.”

Emmy Award-winning correspondent and anchor for ABC News, Juju Chang, was the Master of Ceremonies and shared sobering facts about the growing child poverty crisis in New York City. Chang reminded guests of their obligation to be part of the solution and urged them to become involved by being informed of the facts, sharing this information widely, and regularly taking part in CCC’s advocacy activities.

The breakfast was to benefit CCC, New York City’s premier multi-issue, non-profit and non-partisan child advocacy organization, founded 69 years ago by Eleanor Roosevelt. As an independent non-profit receiving no government funding, the annual breakfast is one critical means of support for the organization’s research, education and advocacy to improve the lives of the nearly 2 million children living in New York City.

For more information on CCC’s 2013 Celebration Breakfast, including excerpts from speakers’ remarks and additional information about honorees, visit https://www.cccnewyork.org/Breakfast

About CCC: Since 1944, Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, Inc. (CCC) has convened, informed and mobilized New Yorkers to make the city a better place for children. CCC’s approach to child advocacy is fact-based and combines the best features of public policy research with a tradition of citizen activism. Our focus is on identifying the causes and effects of vulnerability and disadvantage, recommending solutions to problems children face and working to make public policies, budgets, services and benefits more responsive to children. Our mission is to ensure that every child is healthy, housed, educated and safe.For more on CCC, visit www.cccnewyork.org